ZEV SHALEV AND DEAN BLUNDELL MARCH 17, 2026

5️⃣ Israel Kills the Exit

Israel killed Ali Larijani overnight — Iran’s de facto leader since U.S.-Israeli strikes wiped out the upper echelons of the Iranian government on February 28, and by all accounts the most pragmatic figure left in Tehran with the credibility to negotiate. The Israeli military also confirmed the killing of Gholamreza Soleimani, the head of the Basij paramilitary force. Zev put it bluntly: “Why is Israel killing the only people that America can talk to? If you want the war to end, you wouldn’t be chopping off the head every single time.” Dean noted that the IRGC, like the FSB, is built to survive decapitation — there are thousands ready to fill every position Israel eliminates. With every U.S. ally — UK, France, Germany, Japan, Australia — refusing Trump’s demand to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz, the war has no coalition, no exit strategy, and now no one on the other side with the standing or the will to make a deal.

4️⃣ Trump’s Own Terror Chief: The War Is Illegal

Joe Kent — Trump’s hand-picked director of the National Counterterrorism Center, an 11-combat-tour Green Beret whose wife was killed in a suicide bombing in Syria in 2019 — resigned this morning. His resignation letter, posted on X, was direct: “Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. I cannot in good conscience support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people.” Kent is the highest-ranking Trump administration official to resign over the Iran war. Trump responded by calling him “weak on security” and said it was “a good thing he’s out.” Pentagon briefings to Congress had already contradicted the “imminent threat” claim — officials told lawmakers Iran was not planning to attack unless struck first. The U.S. now has no director of its National Counterterrorism Center during a war, and Trumpworld is bracing for a Tucker Carlson interview with Kent.

3️⃣ Kushner’s $5 Billion War Dividend

While his father-in-law wages an unauthorized war across the Middle East, Jared Kushner is raising $5 billion for his private equity firm Affinity Partners — from Gulf sovereign wealth funds, the same governments Trump is pressuring to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz. Kushner previously raised $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund while serving as a White House adviser during Trump’s first term. A White House ethics waiver allows him to conduct private business while advising on Middle East policy. The Strait of Hormuz closure has pushed oil above $100 a barrel, enriching the Gulf states Kushner is courting. As Dean put it, the financial architecture of Trump’s Middle East policy runs in one direction: toward people who are paying Kushner.

2️⃣ Trump Eyes Cuba as the Lights Go Out

Cuba’s national electricity grid collapsed entirely today — a total blackout across the island. Hours later, Trump told reporters it would be a “big honor” to take Cuba. He is not speaking in the American “we.” As Dean noted, he is speaking in “I” — I can take it, I can do what I want, I can have it. Venezuela is already under U.S. control after the military capture of Maduro. Cuba’s energy crisis has been building for months, starved of Venezuelan oil now under American influence and Russian oil diverted by the Iran war. The next administration, whoever leads it, will inherit the bill for rebuilding countries Trump has decided to acquire. As Zev observed, America itself could use that investment.

1️⃣ Narativ Investigation: The Plot to Steal 2026 Is in Motion

Today Narativ published an investigation connecting what appears to be an operational network to interfere in the 2026 midterm elections — running from the Kremlin through DOGE, Palantir, Tulsi Gabbard, and Russell Vought, and now directly into America’s voter rolls. Democracy Docket reported this week that DOGE has been formally assigned to review state voter rolls. DOGE’s own depositions — aired on Narativ Live the night before — revealed auto-delete Signal, ChatGPT keyword lists used to discriminate, and all government data flowing into Peter Thiel’s Palantir. On January 28, Gabbard personally oversaw the FBI seizure of 700 boxes of voter rolls and ballots from Fulton County, Georgia, with Trump on speakerphone. Narativ’s Epstein files reporting establishes that Epstein introduced Thiel to FSB-trained operative Sergey Belyakov in July 2015 and to Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin in October 2016. Lev Parnas tells Narativ his sources reveal that Putin told Trump: it doesn’t matter who votes — it matters who counts the votes. As Zev said on air: “That is exactly what is happening.” Read the full investigation at narativ.org.

The five stories today are not separate. They are one: a war built on a lie, an insider who said so out loud, a family member cashing in on the carnage, a hemisphere being reorganized by force, and an election already under attack. None of this is what democracy looks like.

The FiveStack is available as an audio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. The FiveStack is a co-production of deanblundell.substack.com and narativ.org.

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